1955-1970 Topps Virtual Series Sheets

[Cliff Bowman]

Ah, I see now, it looks like the bottom row was cut way too close and is missing the wood panel border below the cards. I would say this particular Slit is missing the bottom two rows so it wouldn’t contain another Mantle row. Since this is a 88 card Series that means the other Slit would contain two Mantle cards, one Slit has 44 cards printed twice and the other Slit has the other 44 card printed twice so that all 88 cards are printed three times over the two Slits.

[stevepoland]

Ahh, well I'm not sure about this specific sheet image. But I wasn't thinking about a second slit. So if the wood on bottom lines up with the Gary Bell row, then 2 rows are added to the bottom ... then the second slit would be the middle 4 rows printed twice [up and down], and the top/bottom 4 rows printed once [middle]?

Is there a way to know which is slit A and which is slit B? [if they are distinguished as A/B, or 1/2]

I also count 197-283 to be 4+83=87 cards. Any idea what the 88th card would be? Or maybe these series card number ranges are incorrect from TCDb? "Distributed in seven series: #1-109, #110-196, #197-283, #284-370, #371-446, #447-522, and #523-598".

I'll await to hear what you [or Kevin] say later. Thanks

[Cliff Bowman]

It has two Checklists, one of them is from the previous Series. That was standard practice for Topps in the sixties.

[jmoran19]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Ah, I see now, it looks like the bottom row was cut way too close and is missing the wood panel border below the cards. I would say this particular Slit is missing the bottom two rows so it wouldn’t contain another Mantle row. Since this is a 88 card Series that means the other Slit would contain two Mantle cards, one Slit has 44 cards printed twice and the other Slit has the other 44 card printed twice so that all 88 cards are printed three times over the two Slits.

Correct, this is missing the bottom two rows as Mantle is only on this slit once

John

[Cliff Bowman]

I just now looked, Kevin and I have reconstructed the 1962 Topps 1st, 4th, 6th, and 7th Series so apparently there are already known scans or pics of the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Series. The rows in the 7th Series are already known we just figured out the order of both Slits. The 1962 4th Series has already been shown in this thread, so hopefully the 1st, 6th, and 7th will eventually be shown here. Full complete sheets of 1961 1st and 7th, 1963 3rd, and 1964 6th still need to be shown too.

[stevepoland]

I haven't seen the scans/pics of 1962 3rd series (Mantle). I'd love to know the order of both Slits if anyone finds this.

[Kevvyg1026]

Here are some of the series I have. A recap: (each row has 11 cards).

Series 1 has 110 cards, so 4 rows are printed 3x each, while the remaining 6 rows are printed 2x each.

Series 2, 3,and 4 have 88 different cards, so each row is printed 3x each across the two slits. One slit will have 4 rows 2x and four rows 1x each, while the other slit will reverse that.

Series 5, 6, & 7 have 77 different cards each. For these series, there are 3 rows printed 4x each, and four rows printed 3x each.

Cliff & I have created the layouts for both slits of series 1, 5, 6, and 7 based on miscuts, uncut material, etc. I haven't seen that info made into a visual layout, although we have it in Excel format.

1962_series 2.jpg

62series3.jpg

62series5full.jpg

[stevepoland]

Nice! Question- How do you know that Series 3 1962 sheet is Slit A?

I presume Slit A is left side of a full sheet?

[king11]

Here's a photo (I don't own it) of the other Series 3 slit from 1962.

[Kevvyg1026]

Unless we find a miscut with a distinguishing mark indicating slit a or b, we just call one of them A and the other B. Perhaps I should just say one slit looks like blah blah blah while the other looks like etc.

[stevepoland]

btw, this 1962 Series 3 "slit A", is for sale by this guy. It's the pic above, which is a partial. https://www.preciouspaper.com/collec...-mickey-mantle

[Cliff Bowman]

This is for deweyinthehall to show how Topps welded 1962 cards together with different wood grain patterns on the 132 card sheets.

[Kevvyg1026]

As Cliff pointed out in a previous post, cards in 1962 can sometimes be located above or below a card that has a different wood grain pattern. Those cards often can be found with a "weld" line between them, as he showed in the Maris miscut.

In the 1962 series 7, a 77 card series, the 7 rows are:
A Gernert
B Schaffer
C Rigney
D Nicholson
E Rookie Stars
F Henry
G Osborne

and the pattern we proposed requires that a top line be found on cards from rows A & B, while a bottom line would be found on cards from rows A, E, & G.

A search on ebay does indeed show those lines exist on cards from the appropriate rows. Conversely, I have not founds cards from rows C, D, or F with such lines.

Here are examples of a card from row A (#528, T Lown), showing that line at both the top and the bottom of the card. It is at the top of the card where row E and row A are melded, and it is at the bottom where row A melds with row B.

Hopefully, it is obvious that the wood grain patterns do not match when this melding occurs.

[Kevvyg1026]

Saw this for sale recently, so the 1958 series 4 slits are now known, Series 4 has 88 cards, so there are 8 rows printed 3x each across the sheet. Series 4 printng has cards 287 to 374.

1958_4a.jpg

[Cliff Bowman]

Here is a 1955 Topps Slit that was reconstucted by a board member a few years back. While the other known 1955 Topps 1st Series Slit makes sense with the pattern of fifty different cards with forty printed 2x and ten printed 3x, this Slit makes no sense and has cards printed all over with no patterns other than the Diering horizontal row being printed twice. I am baffled how the 1955 Topps set was printed by each Series and the quantities of each card.

[toppcat]

At a guess, things like the "double Spahn" above Jackie could have been due to a player exclusive to Bowman being pulled last second. This is also the sheet the Baseball Stamps were culled from.

[deweyinthehall]

For a long time we've had a less-than-perfect image of one of the '67 high number slits. Detective work done by others on these boards has now allowed us to create a faux version of the other slit. In mocking up this faux version I went ahead and put one together of the "known" slit to give us the chance to see both side by side as they may have appeared originally on the full sheet layout. Sizing issues with the images used for this have led to some issues impacting the alignment of these cards.

Still, an interesting image - 6 rows X3, 1 row X4 and 1 row X5.

[deweyinthehall]

FYI I tried uploading a larger version without success...

[Cliff Bowman]

Fantastic! This is only my opinion but I have no doubt that someone at Topps screwed up by repeating the Pinson row and the Red Sox Rookie Stars row twice on the first slit but they decided to just run with it anyway rather than take the time and money required to fix it. I believe the first two rows on the first slit were supposed to be either the Ferrara row and the NL Rookie Stars row or the NL Rookie Stars row and the Colavito row.

[Kevvyg1026]

As Cliff pointed out in a recent post, that 110 card partial slit is missing the bottom two rows. Here is the other slit, confirming that.

1962t-3rd-uncut-1a.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

I do not have a completed 1962 series 4 slit, although I believe there is sufficient info to complete it.

[jmoran19]

Originally Posted by Kevvyg1026

I do not have a completed 1962 series 4 slit, although I believe there is sufficient info to complete it.

Here you go

[Cliff Bowman]

Here is the 1970 7th Series B Slit that was put together a couple of months ago.

[quitcrab]

1966

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by quitcrab

1966

If that was a 6th Series Slit I would have sold something and PayPal'd you $100 out of eternal gratitude.

[deweyinthehall]

Based upon the detective work of Cliff and Kevvy, here is the likely arrangement of the full 264-card 2nd series sheet from 1960:

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Based upon the detective work of Cliff and Kevvy, here is the likely arrangement of the full 264-card 2nd series sheet from 1960:

They look great as always! Here's a bigger scan of the first slit.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here's a bigger scan of the second slit.

[toppcat]

Those black print splotches that plague Yaz and some other rookies must come from the black name band on the card above the two atop him but very much from the one below his (rotate 90 degrees for orientation)!